Special Series

The Only Son

一人息子

Directed by: Yasujirō Ozu
1936 / 82 minutes / PG

“Tragedy in life starts with the bondage of parent and child.”

Widowed silk worker Tsune Nonomiya devotes her life to giving her only son, Ryōsuke, a chance at something greater in life. Spurred on by an encouraging teacher and his mother’s financial support, Ryōsuke is determined to fulfil his mother’s aspiration for him and become a man of status and success.  But when Tsune travels to Tokyo to visit her grown son, she is faced with the quiet disappointment of a life far from what she had envisioned for Ryōsuke. Will the opportunities awarded to him by his mother’s sacrifices prove too heavy a burden to bear?  

Set in both 1920s rural Japan and the rapidly modernising streets of 1930s Tokyo, The Only Son is a tender exploration of the bond between mother and son, framed by the hardships of urban life and the relentless struggle against rigid class boundaries. Filled with director Ozu’s signature still shots and subtle contemplative style, his first sound film is a poignant forerunner to his later masterpiece Tokyo Story (1953). To this day, The Only Son remains strikingly relevant in its deeply human portrayal of familial sacrifice, and the generational consequences of social and economic aspiration.